Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi by Thomas Egerton Wilks by Charles Dickens (Illustrated) (eBook)

Charles Dickens (Autor)

Charles Dickens (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: EPUB

2017
244 Seiten
Publishdrive (Verlag)
978-1-78656-725-3 (ISBN)

Infos

This eBook features the unabridged text of 'Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi by Thomas Egerton Wilks' from the bestselling edition of 'The Complete Works of Charles Dickens'.

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Textauszug

CHAPTER II.

1788 to 1794.

The Father’s real Death — His Will, and failure of the Executor — Generous conduct of Grimaldi’s Schoolmaster, and of Mr. Wroughton, the Comedian — Kindness of Sheridan — Grimaldi’s industry and amusements — Fly catching — Expedition in search of the “Dartford Blues” — Mrs. Jordan — Adventure on Clapham Common: the piece of Tin — His first love and its consequences.

It has been stated in several publications that Grimaldi’s father died in 1787. It would appear from several passages in the memoranda dictated by his son, that he expired on the 14th of March, 1788, of dropsy, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and that he was interred in the burial-ground attached to Exmouth-street Chapel; a spot of ground in which, if it bore any resemblance at that time to its present condition, he could have had very little room to walk about and meditate when alive. He left a will, by which he directed all his effects and jewels to be sold by public auction, and the proceeds to be added to his funded property, which exceeded 15,000l.; the whole of the gross amount, he directed should be divided equally between the two brothers as they respectively attained their majority. Mr. King, to whom allusion has already been made, was appointed co-executor with a Mr. Joseph Hopwood, a lace manufacturer in Long-acre, at that time supposed to possess not only an excellent business, but independent property to a considerable amount besides. Shortly after they entered upon their office, in consequence of Mr. King declining to act, the whole of the estate fell to the management of Mr. Hopwood, who, employing the whole of the brothers’ capital in his trade, became a bankrupt within a year, fled from England, and was never heard of afterwards. By this unfortunate and unforeseen event, the brothers lost the whole of their fortune, and were thrown upon their own resources and exertions for the means of subsistence.

 The newspapers, in March, 1788, noticed the death, on the 14th of that month, of “Mr. Joseph Grimaldi, many years Ballet-Master at Drury Lane Theatre, aged 72.” Decastro, who notwithstanding his love of gossip, and occasionally, by a too frequent repetition, perverting the vein of his story, was no mean authority as regarded the old players, most of whom are now —

Down among the dead men!

He used to assert that old Grimaldi died in Lambeth, at his apartments, up a court within a door or two of the Pheasant public-house in Stangate-street. Reference to the burial-register of St. Mary’s, Lambeth, elicited nothing as to his interment there; but on searching the register belonging to Northampton Chapel, in Exmouth-street, we found it there recorded “March 23, 1788, Mr. Joseph Grimaldi, from Lambeth, aged 75.” It will be observed, there is a difference of three years in the age, as stated in the daily papers of the time, and in the register of his burial. No stone, or other memorial, marks the spot where his ashes lie.

The court in which Grimaldi died, in poverty, not wealth, was, till the last destruction of Astley’s Amphitheatre, under the tenancy of Ducrow, called Theatre-court, or place; but the fire consumed the greater part, and its site is now occupied by that portion of Batty’s Amphitheatre which is in the Palace New-road.

 The original Editor has been misinformed. We are sorry to have to record that Signor Grimaldi had nothing to bequeath to any one; he made no will; and a search at the Prerogative Office, Doctor’s Commons, for the two years following his death, is evidence of this, no probate having issued thence.

It is very creditable to all parties, and while it speaks highly for the kind feeling of the friends of the widow, and her two sons, bears high testimony to their conduct and behaviour, that no sooner was the failure of the executor known than offers of assistance were heaped upon them from all quarters. Mr. Ford, the Putney schoolmaster, offered at once to receive Joseph into his school and to adopt him as his own son; this offer being declined by his mother, Mr. Sheridan, who was then proprietor of Drury Lane Theatre, raised the boy’s salary, unasked, to one pound per week, and permitted his mother, who was and had been from her infancy a dancer at that establishment, to accept a similar engagement at Sadler’s Wells, which was, in fact, equivalent to a double salary, both theatres being open together for a considerable period of the year.

At Sadler’s Wells, where Joseph appeared as usual in 1788, shortly after his father’s death, they were not so liberal, nor was the aspect of things so pleasing, his salary of fifteen shillings a-week being very unceremoniously cut down to three, and his mother being politely informed, upon her remonstrating, that if the alteration did not suit her, he was at perfect liberty to transfer his valuable services to any other house. Small as the pittance was, they could not afford to refuse it; and at that salary he remained at Sadler’s Wells for three years, occasionally superintending the property-room, sometimes assisting in the carpenter’s, and sometimes in the painter’s, and, in fact, lending a hand wherever it was most needed.

 The season of 1788, at Sadler’s Wells, was one of no common interest. On Whitsun Monday, May 12, in a musical piece, entitled “Saint Monday; or, a Cure for a Scold,” Mr. Braham, then Master Abrahams, made his first appearance. He is named in the bills of August 18, but appears soon after to have left Sadler’s Wells, and on the 30th of the same month had a benefit at the Royalty Theatre, Well-street, near Goodman’s-fields, as “Master Braham,” when the celebrated tenor singer, Leoni, his master, announced that as the last time of his performing on the stage. Miss Shields, who appeared at Sadler’s Wells in the same piece on Whitsun Monday, became towards the end of May, Mrs. Leffler. Two Frenchmen, named Duranie and Bois-Maison, as pantomimists, eclipsed all their predecessors on that stage. Boyce, a distinguished engraver, was the Harlequin, and by those who remember him, he is eulogised as the most finished actor of the motley hero, either in his own day, or since. On the benefit night of Joseph Dortor, Clown to the rope, and Richer, the rope dancer, Miss Richer made her first appearance on two slack wires, passing through a hoop, with a pyramid of glasses on her head; and Master Richer performed on the tight rope, with a skipping rope. Joseph Dortor, among other almost incredible feats, drank a glass of wine backwards from the stage-floor, beating a drum at the same time. Lawrence, the father of Joe’s friend, Richard Lawrence, threw a summerset over twelve men’s heads, and Paul Redigé, “The Little Devil,” on October 1, threw a summerset over two men on horseback, the riders having each a lighted candle on his head. Dubois, as Clown to the Pantomime, had no superior in his time; and the troop of Voltigeurs were pre-eminent for their agility, skill, and daring.

When the defalcation of the executor took place, the family were compelled to give up their comfortable establishment, and to seek for lodgings of an inferior description. His mother knowing a Mr. and Mrs. Bailey, who then resided in Great Wild-street, and who let lodgings, applied to them, and there they lived, in three rooms on the first floor, for several years. The brother could not be prevailed upon to accept any regular engagement, for he thought and dreamt of nothing but going to sea, and evinced the utmost detestation of the stage. Sometimes, when boys were wanted in the play at Drury Lane, he was sent for, and attended, for which he received a shilling per night; but so great was his unwillingness and evident dissatisfaction on such occasions, that Mr. Wroughton, the comedian, who, by purchasing the property of Mr. King, became about this period proprietor of Sadler’s Wells, stepped forward in the boy’s behalf, and obtained for him a situation on board an East-Indiaman, which then lay in the river, and was about to sail almost immediately.

 Further inquiries enable us to prove that King transferred his right in Sadler’s Wells to Messrs. Wroughton and Serjeant, at the close of the year 1788.

John was delighted when the prospect of realizing his ardent wishes opened upon him so suddenly; but his raptures were diminished by the discovery that an outfit was indispensable, and that it would cost upwards of fifty pounds: a sum which, it is scarcely necessary to say, his friends, in their reduced position, could not command. But the same kind-hearted gentleman removed this obstacle, and with a generosity and readiness which enhanced the value of the gift an hundredfold, advanced, without security or obligation, the whole sum required, merely saying, “Mind, John, when you come to be a captain you must pay it me back again.”

There is no difficulty in providing the necessaries for a voyage to any part of the world when you have provided the first and most important — money. In two days, John took his leave of his mother and brother, and with his outfit, or kit, was safely deposited on board the vessel in which a berth had been procured for him; but the boy, who was of a rash, hasty, and inconsiderate temper, finding, on going on board, that a delay of ten days would take place before the ship sailed, and that a king’s ship, which lay near her, was just then preparing to drop down to Gravesend with the tide, actually swam from his own ship to the other, entered himself as a seaman or...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 17.7.2017
• Reihe/Serie: Delphi Parts Edition (Charles Dickens)
• Reihe/Serie: Delphi Parts Edition (Charles Dickens)
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Anthologien
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Klassiker / Moderne Klassiker
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Schlagworte: bleak • Copperfield • Expectations • Nickleby • Novels • pickwick • Twist
• ISBN-10: 1-78656-725-3 / 1786567253
• ISBN-13: 978-1-78656-725-3 / 9781786567253